Oahu homeless figures to be released
May 15—1/2
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Homeless encampments were seen Tuesday along South King Street.
2/2
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
A homeless encampment Tuesday was situated along Kalakaua Avenue.
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The latest number of homeless people who were counted across Oahu in January will be released today in the latest benchmark of homelessness in Honolulu.
Social workers, government officials and volunteers fanned out across the island Jan. 23 as part of the national homeless census known as the annual Point in Time Count.
In January 2023, 4,028 people were homeless — or living "in our shelters, streets, beaches, cars, or other places not meant for human habitation,"
according to Partners in Care, which coordinates Oahu's Point in Time Count.
The 2023 numbers represented an increase from the 3,951 people who were counted as homeless on Oahu in January 2022.
In 2022, Hawaii had the second-highest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation, according to Gov. Josh Green, who
has made reducing homelessness one of the
cornerstones of his
administration.
In his January State of the State address, Green said 6,223 people across the islands were homeless — or 43 out of every 10,000 people — which was more than double the national rate of 18 per 10,000 people.
The neighbor island Point in Time Count numbers from January are expected to be announced later.
Green continues to push for more tiny-home "kauhale" communities across the islands to get more homeless people housed while they receive on-site social service help for a wide range of issues, including treatment for mental health and substance abuse.
Green and Mayor Rick Blangiardi have publicly expressed solidarity in reducing homelessness on Oahu.
But the city's policies to clearing homeless encampments across Oahu have been challenged in court, along with legal challenges to other homeless practices in Western states.
In July the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii — and the civil rights law firm of Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian &Ho — filed a lawsuit
alleging that Honolulu's homeless sweeps and other "anti-houseless" laws should be ruled illegal and unconstitutional because they violate Hawaii's state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
The ACLU particularly wants Honolulu's sit-lie ban, park closure rules, camping prohibition in city parks and sidewalk nuisance and stored property ordinances ruled illegal and unconstitutional in Circuit Court.
In an earlier, separate lawsuit against Maui County filed by the ACLU, the Hawaii Supreme Court in March found that the due process clauses of both the U.S. and Hawaii Constitutions required Maui County to hold a hearing before seizing — and immediately destroying — homeless property in September 2021.
In a separate case a panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that Grants Pass, Ore., could not enforce local ordinances that made it illegal for homeless people to use a "blanket, pillow, or cardboard box for protection from the
elements."
The Grants Pass case remains before the U.S. Supreme Court.
